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Why Home Education? (A Series...Part 6)

 Today a relative called me very upset about their request for an IEP for their child. The school was not giving the parents what they wanted, i.e. a parapro to supervise the child and make sure he completed his schoolwork.

The parents have legitimate concerns about the child. The child is from foster care and engaging in a slew of frustrating behaviors--lying, stealing, rushing through assignments and turning them in half done, failing classes, etc. The boy is in 6th grade and already on his second school in the less than a year he's been with this family. 

It was a long phone call. So many layers of frustration and some very long stories. Here's the problem: the school isn't going to do that. You don't get an IEP for not doing your homework. You sure as hell don't get a parapro anymore for anything less than being on a feeding tube and/or being criminally violent.

I tried to use medical insurance as an illustration for how special ed works. While a doctor can see a patient has needs, if the patient does not fit exactly within the parameters set by the insurance company, they aren't going to pay for it. Special ed operates under federal rules that clearly define who gets in and who does not. And schools are not inclined to bend the rules when nobody is paying for it. 

The key thing parents don't understand is that there are federal rules that clearly state special ed is NOT about the best education. It's about a good enough education. In this famous case the parents wanted the school to pay for riding lessons for their child because it was deemed therapeutic by the child's doctors. The school said, sure, that'd be nice but no other student in the school gets riding lessons so we can't provide above and beyond for your kid. It went all the way to the Supreme Court and the court agreed with the school. 

This parent I was talking to today complained the school wasn't monitoring the child's Chromebook usage so the boy, sitting in the classroom, was rushing through his assignments and then playing video games. The parent wants a parapro to sit there and monitor the boy. I had to stifle a laugh. Does this parent think the school won the lottery? No school has money to hire people to do that. And, furthermore, this boy is doing what every other student is in this year of covid is doing: goofing off on his Chromebook. 

The parent described contentious meetings with the school administration where they said these were "home problems" and could not be fixed in the school. The parent was furiously angry knowing the child was screwing around for 6 hours in the classroom all day and then the parent was going to face emails from the teacher about missed assignments. Both sides have a point.

As I listened to this parent I began to understand what the parent was really angry about: the school has created a problem it cannot (or will not) fix. 

Everything the school has done has set this family up for failure. Their entire educational program now only consists of meaningless busywork that kids can click through with no comprehension. The kids know it. The teachers know it. Only this poor parent doesn't know it. 

The parent retold a conversation with the math teacher. The parent complained about too many video games being used in math. The teacher came back, extolling the learning possibilities in these games and then said she plays the games to try to get a higher score than the kids so they'll play to try to beat her score. This is education today: teachers playing games along with their students. 

What used to be extracurricular motivation (that's how these "learning" games were first marketed to schools) have now become the sole content. It's criminally negligent. But it's now the norm, thanks to remote learning so many schools were forced into this year by covid. 

The conversation I had today was just one sample of the hundreds of times I observed schools setting kids up for failure. Many times the school is actually working against itself. First it sets a norm such as kids sitting silently for 90 minutes in front of a teacher with a document camera showing them all the worksheets they have to do that day. Then, when five year olds can't successfully remember the 90 minute presentation and fill out the worksheet half a day later--the school deems them a behavior or learning problem and brings in special ed. It's absolute insanity. 

In short: why home education? Because the system won't get in the way. The structure and procedures and policies are erased. We are left with just children and content and the freedom to learn. Of course structure is critically important. Of course high quality content is the absolute key. Of course the home educator needs some understanding of child psychology and educational theories. I'm not negating the importance of any of these. But, removing the school from learning is the number one step to success.

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